"Ever since Tai-tastigon was built back in the days of the Old Empire, folks in these parts have loved puzzles. Once their whole culture was built on them, social conventions and all, and the highest form of art was the labyrinth."

On their Wagon Train to the Stars, our intrepid heroes come across a planet with a single defining characteristic. Everybody is a robot, or a gangster, or a Proud Warrior Race Guy, or an over-the-top actor, or wearing a Nice Hat. To some degree, this is unavoidable; you only have so much screen time or page space to develop and explore a culture. This is especially true in episodic series where the heroes travel to a new planet each week and you have to both introduce a planet and tell a story all within a single episode.

Writers love to use the hat planet to represent controversial issues in society whenever they can. This way the show's characters can take a thinly disguised public stand on an issue that the network execs would otherwise consider too taboo to openly discuss. We can't have our heroes discussing euthanasia, but should they stumble across a Planet Of Hats where everyone who gets sick is put to death, then it's okay. Eventually the plots will run out with an entire race of identical people so one or more of the species will have their hat fall off, declaring My Species Doth Protest Too Much. Alternately, the show may explore why Klingon Scientists Get No Respect. For maximum typing, the characters can also be physically uniform, as in People of Hair Color.

The Planet Of Hats may also be an unintended result of a Character Exaggeration type Plot Tumor applied to an entire race, when the audience had previously only seen a single representative who the writers now wish to market. For cases where a planetary hat is extrapolated retroactively from a single character, see Planet of Copyhats.

Just for comparison, Earth has seven continents, hosting just under two hundred states, with an estimated five thousand ethnicities, with even more thousands of different languages and their varied dialects. There is no reason to suspect that alien life forms would be any different, but in media they are nowhere near as diverse as one might expect.

Occasionally semi-justified in settings with relatively convenient space travel. Many nations agree to use a single language (usually English) when they must operate in a multinational group. It is also reasonable to expect planetary colonists to be culturally and linguistically uniform.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Galaxy Express 999 is the ur-example in Anime/Manga. We have planets where everyone's a beggar, fat, angry, lawless, sad, glows in the dark and so on. Subverted with Planet Fury, which appears to be a Crapsack World whose hat is fighting. Its real hat is candor. The constant fighting is just a side effect.

In the episode "Mushroom Samba" (itself the name of another trope), the crew of the Bebop finds that the terraformed moon Io has developed a culture apparently inspired by 1970s Blaxploitation films.

Bebop used the different planets as either Fantasy Counterpart Culture or a planet of hats. Venus was US-run, while Callisto was Russian, the Jovians were mostly European, and Earth was SE Asia.

In Kino's Journey, each individual country is a separate Planet of Hats, such as a country devoted to nothing else but the construction of a tower or is inhabited by people who do nothing but secretarial work. Most amusing is the town who doesn't have a hat, and is trying desperately to get one. They show off some different 'ancient tradition' to every traveler to come by. Kino remarks that this is their hat.

In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP, the characters must visit different worlds in search of Princess Sakura's feathers. Roughly every world they visit will be a Planet of Hats (although some of them aren't as easy to notice).

The two main planets are Taraak (the planet of men), a barren world where the locals are concerned with things like uniforms, practicality, appearing manly, and eating nutrition pellets (think hamster food), and Mejere (the planet of women), which looks like Las Vegas and has locals concerned with appearing nice, who eat foods that are basically dessert.

There's a darker side to this as well, as every inhabited planet was marked by a unique physical trait representing which organ was supposed to be harvested by Earth. Taraak and Mejele were male and female reproductive organs respectively.

In Nyarko-san, Earth's hat is specifically noted to pretty much be our entertainment industry, which is so popular out there its a controlled substance and we can't know how incredibly big our audience is, both due to lack of supply, although the nature of our fans also factored into their decision to hide while taking advantage of our funny hat.

We are introduced to the Namek race by Piccolo and Kami, who were original one person. Everyone in the race is green, reproduce asexually, is one gender (male), have mystical abilities, and is peace-loving with the exception of Piccolo who was the Nameless Namek's evil side that was corrupted by living on Earth. Part of the reason for the uniformity is that the Nameks we see in the main story, with the exception of the Nameless Namek, all came from one father after the race was brought to the brink of extinction. Which means any culture or other unique differences would be all but lost since everyone came from the same gene pool and raised by the same person. However, there are still subtypes or 'classes.' There are two castes; the Dragon Caste (consisting of those with magicial abilities and being able to create Dragon Balls i.e. Dende and Kami) and the Warrior Caste, those who are powerful in combat (Nail and the original King Piccolo.) Piccolo Jr. (the good one) could be considered a hybrid due to being a fusion (but lacks Kami's ablities of creating the Dragon Balls.)

The Saiyans were introduced by Goku. Once Raditz comes we learned that all Saiyans are freaking strong, transform into giant apes under a full moon, are prideful, and are Blood Knights. Goku is unique among his race because he doesn't have the Saiyan bloodlust. This is a combination of being raise on Earth, a head injury, and inheriting his mom's good nature. Part of the justification for the Saiyans is that there were good Saiyans, but they were banished or repressed by the more violent parts of their race. The Saiyans' dark nature was also exploited by Frieza who used them to wipe planets and made them advance too fast so they never evolved past their barbaric ways.

One Piece has dozens of 'islands of hats', deriving plenty of its comedy from the various islands the characters visit and explore. Some examples include a Lady Land, a Venice expy, an Island of Weather-wizards, and an Island of Cross-dressers.

The comic takes place in a city where everyone — the cops, the bus drivers, the bums on the street — is a superhero or some other "science hero" trope. This does have lots of room within it, however, as the titular team has a talking dog in an exoskeleton, the world's only Yazidi superhero, and a sarcastic Mazinger Z, amongst others. Did we mention it's a police procedural?

It's eventually revealed that the "10 Precinct" (hence the "10" in "Top 10") is so called because it's the 10th in a series of alternate dimensions. Each dimension has its own precinct, and its own hat. The 10th is superheroes; other precincts include robot dinosaurs and Romans.

It's also revealed in a prequel that the city was set up after World War II and beings with superpowers were exiled to it.

In the Legion of Super-Heroes, most planets are like this, with their "hat" being related to their super-power; Naltor, planet of precogs, Titan, planet of telepaths, Colu, planet of geniuses, et cetera. There used to be a rule that there could be no two members from the same planet, because "planet" and "superpower" were that synonymous.

They also have two characters from Winath who (at least some of the time) share a superpower, but that's not Winath's hat — almost all the people of Winath are identical twins, and the two Legionnaires, Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass, are Half-Identical Twins, so similar that by deeping her voice and keeping the Most Common Superpower bound, Ayla managed to impersonate Garth. In some media, the whole planet is devoted to farming.

Ultra Boy comes from Rimbor, which is The Planet Of Dark Alleys and Biker Gangs. They don't have powers, though: Jo Nah got his powers from a Space Whale.

And of course, the planet Bizmol, whose hat is eating things.

This is all justified in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2, which shows that all of these planets were specifically colonized a thousand years earlier by advanced humans with similar power-sets after Invasion!! happened.

Also occurred at least once in a Superman comic in which Jimmy Olsen is transported to the Planet of the Capes. Seriously. This comic came out in the wake of the Planet of the Apes film, so they were probably going for the pun.

Lobo occasionally encounters hat planets, such as planets made entirely from highway (in the Lobo comic series), a vacation planet (The Last Czarnian mini-series), and a planet populated by religious fundamentalists who immediately explode upon contact with any infidels by triggering an apparently inherited power through pushing down their head onto their shoulder.

The Hat of the Daxamites is violent xenophobia. Daxamites who don't try to kill aliens on sight are considered outcasts, and in one case was brainwashed by his own parents so that he would be a xenophobe. And just to complicate matters for aliens, they're on offshoot of Kryptonians, who win the Superpower Lottery when exposed to a yellow sun.

The Polish comic Tytus, Romek I A'Tomek has an issue where the protagonists visit several "Nonsense Islands", each of which is a classic Island Of Hats where everyone is an athlete, a bureaucrat, etc.

In one Mickey Mouse detective story Mickey and Goofy are employed by aliens from a planet where everyone is a thief - its perfectly legal to steal, people are suspicious of someone who doesn't, and their leader got his position because he is such a great crook. (No, not by cheating. People voted for him because he was such a dishonest man.) They need an outsider because they are temporarily hosting an artifact shared with other, friendly planets, and they don't trust anyone on their own planet - with good reason.

In the Justice League of America story "Heaven's Ladder" has a race of aliens infiltrating various planets to discover how each one views the afterlife and their religious beliefs. For most races the alien sleeper-agents are things like priests or religious leaders, as all of the universe's alien races only have one religion apiece. On Earth, their human representative is a professor of comparative theologies.

Reimagined Enterprise: Usually there are some attempts to avert or reduce this trope compared to the canon show. To be fair, the prose format makes it somewhat easier to avoid reducing races to a stereotype compared to TV.

In Ashes of the Past all Squirtles, Wartortles, and Blastoise are massive Otakus. It gets tot he point where many of them have fighting styles that emulate thier fandom.

Transformers: The Movie had the planet Junk, where a race of robots made of scrap live; their entire culture is based on TV and radio transmissions from Earth, with the result that they say things like "Stop, thief! No welcome wagon 'hello stranger' with that new coffee flavor for you!". This was homaged in the Live-Action Adaptation where Optimus Prime claimed the Autobots learned to speak English 'from your Internet'.

Russian animation film "Third Planet From Sun" when protagonists check database about planet Shelezyaka, it says: "Planet Shelezyaka: no plants, no water, no minerals. Inhabited by robots". When they visit planet, they see, how exact this entry.

The American Astronaut has the Venusians which are all Southern Belles and the people from Jupiter who are all miners; the latter is justified since it's implied they are hired from all over the galaxy.

Literature

Nations characterized by a single trait have been a staple of travelogue-style fiction for centuries. The academics-obsessed people of Laputa in Gulliver's Travels are a good example.

The Idirans of Iain M. Banks's Culture books are a Proud Warrior Race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Culture Orbitals tend to acquire hats due to the nature of the Culture as a society of absolute leisure with high population mobility. Masaq orbital is full of extreme sports (and is so dedicated to risk it's deliberately orbiting an unstable star), whilst Chiark is the destination of choice for games of skill and chance. There's also The Affront, a race of Laughably Evil sadists and the Gzilt, whose Hat is being Mildly Military with everyone being (nominally) a soldier.

The Wheel of Time: The world is comprised of hat-wearing nations and peoples. Two Rivers folk are all brave and stubborn, Cairhienin are all short and concerned with political intrigue, Arad Domani women are all seductresses, women in the various Ajahs of the Aes Sedai almost always act alike, etc. Few cultures in the series are shown to have individuals who behave contrary to their cultural stereotypes.

Arguably justified with regards to the Aes Sedai; they are guided towards their appropriate Ajahs while they are still Accepted.

Janet Kagan's Hellspark is a multiple-culture universe where each of the cultures has a single quirk — one considers feet obscene, one duels at the drop of a hat, one considers telling the truth (speaking accurately) a basic requirement, etc. It's downplayed; each character is influenced by their culture's hat, but not defined by it. There's a scene where Om im, who comes from a society with a Knife Nut hat, says as much, and points out that if he were nothing but the hat most of his colleagues would have knife holes in them by now.

Pierson's Puppeteers are cowards to the point that only insane specimens are willing to deal with other species (but as their name implies, their real hat is Manipulative Bastardry.note Their name really refers to their two small heads with one eye each on long, prehensile necks, which looks like a hand-puppet show. Still, it certainly fits either way.) Kzinti are all Samurai-esqueProud Warrior Race Guys, and humans may or may not have a trait for genetic luck. Humans are also apparently obsessed with sex; in Ringworld, the puppeteer Nessus says to Louis and Teela, "No known species copulates as often as you do"note Which just goes to show that Nessus has never seen a bonobo, and The Ringworld Engineers.

The series features many species with the same ancestry as humans whose politics revolves around ritual inter-species sex. Further, at various points in the series, Niven will go into the details of how these hats are worn, via the various mechanism that produced the human traits, and the evolutionary imperatives that effect the ongoing makeup of the various species. At one point in Ringworld, a kzin sets a human off on a logical analysis of the instability of Kzinti aggression in the context of an enemy race that they can't easily beat. Whether this is a Lampshade Hanging or a justification is left as an exercise for the reader.

There are plenty of exceptions of course. The Kzinti have the least, but that's justified with them genetically engineering themselves into a 'heroic' race. They were at best bronze age technologically when taken by another species to use as troops. They rebelled and overthrew their masters, using their technology with most of them not truly understanding it. They tinkered a hell of a lot with their own genome, with one of the offshoots making their women non-sentient and playing with their sex drives and aggression. The Puppeteers don't even have sex as we understand it, reproducing with a female of a separate species that actually gestates the young until the child eats its way out...

Pak Protectors wear the Villain Sue hat, and human Protectors wear the Canon Sue hat. To be transformed into a Protector is to become the ultimate soldier, strategist, scientist and engineer, able to solve almost any problem and beat almost any opponent.

Justified in The Little Prince since every planet is inhabited by exactly one person.

Animorphs had the Iskoort, whose Hat was guilds — there was (in order of introduction) a Trader Guild, a Criminal Guild, a Warmaker Guild (though it quickly becomes clear the Iskoort were not cut out for combat), a Servant Guild, a Worker Guild, a Superstition and Magic Guild, a Shopper Guild, and even a "News, Gossip, and Speculation Guild." And all the Traders were the most annoying salesmen imaginable. (The others were annoying, too, but they ran into Traders the most.)

In the comedy science fiction Hoka series by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, the Hokas' "hat" is that they are entranced by fiction. Give them a story and they will start to live it out, believing (or at least acting) as if they are in it. They have whole cities based on various periods of human history, with Ancient Rome, Victorian England, American Wild West and other places. One of them believes he is Napoleon and has an entire city of Hokas willing to follow him as leader of "France". Actually, a better way of saying it is that their hat is following tropes, as they tend to act out the trope more than reality. Luckily, they are non-violent, so they tend to just fake the wars and other violent parts.

The trope also occurs in Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle, better known as the Dorsai series. Humanity has separated in various splinter cultures who specialize in one attribute. The Dorsai focus on courage and honor. Newton, Cassdia, and Venus are hard science cultures. Ste. Marie is a colony of Catholic farmers. Freiland is known for its bureaucracy. Coby are known for its miners. The Exotics focus on philosophy. The Friendlies focus on religion. The trope is justified in the larger frame of the Cycle.

The alternate worlds or "planes" in Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin are often like this; each one features a more-or-less humanoid alien race with a special ability, psychological/biological quirk, or universal tradition — such as sharing dreams, seasonal migrations, near-constant anger, becoming silent at adulthood, and extreme devotion to apparently meaningless architectural projects.

Each of the nations of the West has its own hat. To a first approximation, based on the characters encountered: All Sendars are farmers, all Drasnians are spies, all Tolnedrans are merchants, all Chereks are Viking warriors, and all Nyssans are drug-addicted poisoners.

Most of the 'hats' are actually fantasy archetypes based on Earth cultures — the Chereks are Vikings Up to Eleven, the Algars are the Mongols likewise, the Drasnians appear to be a Renaissance Italy stereotype transplanted into a different geographical setting, the Tolnedrans are based on the Roman Empire (hence both their mercantile aspect and their obsessive road-building and disciplined legions), the Arends are medieval high chivalry myths taken to the point of self-parody, etc. The unflappable demeanour, their courtesy, and the general obsession with propriety of the Sendars seem to be more English than anything.

This is somewhat justified, as each people group were hand-picked by a Physical God, who created them specifically to align to their ideals. The exception are the Sendarians, who were "created" by an immortal sorceress.

The Eastern nations started out as pretty hatty. But then, they were under the control of an insane god for millenia. Eddings recyclesrevisits recycles those themes in the Elenium and Tamuli novels: All Styrics are self-pitying magicians, all Atans are warriors, All Tamuli are polite to a fault, etc.

The tribes of Angarak originally were the CASTES of Angarak, and Torak mistook their differences for tribal rather than professional distinctions after being away doing god-stuff for a couple thousand years.

In the novel Design for Great-Day by Alan Dean Foster and Eric Frank Russel, a spiderlike species is mentioned whose hat is... hats. Nice ones.

In The Edge Chronicles, all of the Slaughterers are hunters and butchers, all of the shrykes are slave-trading warriors, and all of the trolls are lumberjacks. This even extends to occupations: the Leaguesmen are corrupt, the Sky-Scholars are evil, and the Earth-Scholars and Sky Pirates are good. However, oakelves, goblins, waifs, and (of course) fourthlings can be anything, and quarter-masters are either traitorous or fiercely loyal (sort-of hat).

In L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, the Selachee, a race of sharks who have feet, can "live anywhere, breathe any atmosphere and eat anything," and while they did have Selachee who are engineers and other professions, their planet's exclusive profession is banking.

Several races in The Chronicles of Narnia, such as the Dufflepuds, who play Captain Obvious with such astute observations as water is powerfully wetnote Justified in that "the entire race" is one small tribe of (originally) dwarfs who were given to the wizard Coriakin to oversee in order to teach him humility, so their stupidity is presumably a design feature (Coriakin is literally a star, on enforced sabbatical for some fault that Man is not meant to know about)., and the Marsh-wiggles, an entire race of Eeyores.

In Alan Dean Foster's series The Damned, all of humanity wears the Blood Knight hat once an interstellar war lands in our laps. And it's a good thing, too, because every other species in these novels either wear the Programmed For Pacifism hat or the Reluctant Clumsy Warrior hat, and being good at killing things is our only hope to survive in the face of technological superiority. Well... that and being immune to telepathy. Humans are the only species that doesn't have a single, unified culture, because we're the only ones who're such bastards that we can't even get along with members of our own species.

Tanya Huff's Confederation of Valor series has the Taykans and the Krai whose hats are sex and food respectively.

John Varley's short story "The Barbie Murders" features a cult of humans nicknamed "The Barbies" who are obsessed with conformity. They have each been modified to look and sound identical, down to the last tiny detail. They have no names or personal identities, and each takes responsibility for the actions of all the rest. This makes finding a murderer in their midst rather trying.

The Haruchai are a race of stoic proud warriors. The Insequent are a race who Walk the Earth in search of knowledge. The Elohim wear an Omniscient Morality License hat. All the Ramen (people from the Plains of Ra, not noodles) care about are their horses. The Stonedownors are obsessed with stone while their cousins the Woodhelvins are obsessed with trees.

And on the evil side of things, the Cavewights are all Axe Crazy mooks, the ur-viles are enigmatic sorcerers, and the Croyel are parasites who offer faustian bargains. Ravers could also be said to have the hat of nature-hating omnicidal jerkasses, but this is justified by there being only three of them, and the fact that they work directly for the God of Evil.

Ender's Game has planets that were colonized by a single religion or country, to encourage diversity of humans among the stars.

Saga of the Exiles similarly mentions worlds being assigned to individual peoples for colonisation; there is even a reference to races with more "vigour" being given more planets.

Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium is similar for a justified reason; colonies are expensive, and require sponsors who obviously choose who populate them. America and Russia have filled the galaxy with clones of themselves, and every industrial power has at least one colony; all are meant to be examples of the superiority of their given culture. Religious and political nutcases with sufficient funds have attempted to do the same, but are often subject to the titular Amerusski Pact dumping violent criminals on them, meaning that almost every planet that isn't populated by Hats is a Crapsack World.

Walter Moers applies the principle to several cities in his Zamonia novels, most notably Bookholm (everything revolves around books) and Sledwaya (everything revolves around illness)

This is a common theme in Robert Asprin's MYTH series, with the characteristic of residents often being puns on the name of their "dimension." For example, residents of Deva (Deveels) are all aggressive merchants, while male residents of Trollia are trolls and female residents, trollops.

In the To the Stars trilogy by Harry Harrison, EarthGov has not only terraformed Single Biome Planets, they've also created a unique culture for each in order to maximise their control. For instance the agricultural planet the protagonist has been exiled to in Wheelworld is populated entirely by peasants and mechanics, ruled by a group of autocratic Familys.

In old science-fiction novel ''Star Surgeon'' by Alan E. Nourse, Humans have the hat of being doctors, to the point that Earth is called "Hospital Earth". Apparently nobody else ever really got into the whole "cut people open to make them better" thing. (At the time it was written, open heart surgery was a new, exciting thing.)

In Pandora's Planet, the Alien Invaders are dull and gullible enough compared to humans that once we start going out and proselytizing they become more convinced than the proselytizers. A whole planet briefly bans everything artificial. Mention is made of a low-gravity world colonized expressly for the purpose of horse racing.

E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, the sequel novel to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, implies that all the members of E.T.'s unnamed species are botanists, since they can all communicate telepathically with plants.

In Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Space, humans are the only species able to devote themselves entirely to an idea (i.e have faith), which becomes important at the end of the book when a coalition of aliens are trying to construct a gigantic solar sail to prevent a future galaxy sterilization event (and not the next one, either).

While many planets in Honor Harrington are interesting, multi-cultural places, others are outright Planet of Hats type places:

Montana, on which everyone acts like stereotypical cowboys, which is lampshaded by one of the Montanans when he explains that his ancestors fell in love with an ideal, regardless of whether that ideal ever actually existed. In short, their planet's Hat is a Stetson.

Grayson is a planet of stubborn traditionalists, even those who want to reform the society want to do so to make it more like Grayson and when new ideas or technology are introduced from off-world they almost inevitably improve it first to make it a Grayson advancement. Furthermore much of their mindset is infectious so even offworlders start acting Grayson in time. This is perhaps exemplified by their name for God; while most modern versions of Christianity call God things like a healer, protector, or provider, Graysons call God "The Tester", and believe that everyone faces their own personal Test.

In The Demon Princes, there's Sarkovy, the Planet of Poisoners; and Methel, the Planet of Snobs. This is partly explained by the fact that Methel is actually owned by socially elite caste, who take steps to keep others out, not least the Darsh from neighbouring Dar Sai, the Planet of Boors.

Another example of this is in Stephenie Meyer's book "The Host" which features a horde of peace loving aliens which invade earth and take over the body of almost everyone who lives there. This is used (apparently) deliberately as an excuse for the aliens, who hate violence, to bodysnatch the human race, as because all of them are so similar in their views and personality, they do not understand the diversity in human morality, and assume all of us are evil.

Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series isn't too bad about this, for a fantasy story—Ancelstierre's hat is being early 20th century England, and the Old Kingdom's hat is being a fantasy country with a distinctive magic system and a serious zombie problem. Considerable variation within. And then in Abhorsen we get the Southerlings, refugees from a war in the South whose real purpose is to be killed by the Big Bad and turned into its zombie slaves. They barely say a word. They are identified by their blue hats (and scarves). Repeatedly.

Presumably Nix wanted a cultural trait to identify the doomed-people-and-zombies with, since a physical one, such as skin color, would be like marking out whatever real race(s) resembling that as Cannon Fodder and/or things to run away from. And since particular hats have frequently been the intentional markers of communities throughout history (most of Eurasia has for extended periods viewed the lack of a hat as indecent) blue headwear was a solid call.

The different colonist habitats in Slow Train To Arcturus each function as a planet of hats. Justified in that each of the habitats was purchased by a group which wished to leave Earth and selected other colonists with similar interests. The particular hats are:

A Song of Ice and Fire features several peoples that take one particular thing, usually an important resource or terrain feature, and make it the absolute center of their culture, shoehorning it into their language's figures of speech wherever possible:

In Year Zero by Rob Reid, Earth wears the hat of "being really good at making music." (Which is to say that, by our standards, everyone else in the universe is really bad at making music.)

In Robert J. Sawyer's Starplex, the Waldahud are mostly rude and mean, though not necessarily bad, as such. The Ibs are all rational and polite, and very serious about not wasting each other's time. The alien races themselves are annoyed by humanity's tendency to... overuse acronyms, these being entirely unknown to any other intelligent race.

In Paul Preuss and Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime series, the various outposts all have different cultures. Port Hesperus (a space station in orbit around Venus) is basically a mix of Tokyo and Dubai, for instance, while the Martian colony and its orbiting station are both severely Russian.

Played interestingly in the New Jedi Order series with the Yuuzhan Vong who basically wear the hat of "fanatical devotion", but there's a great deal of variety in how this manifestsnote obsession with pain and death, while it a first seems like the Vong hat, is a part of their religion and therefore more a side-effect of the "fanatical devotion" hat than a hat in its own right. It mostly breaks down along caste lines (warrior caste hat: war, priest caste hat: religion, shaper caste hat: Mad Scientist, and intendant caste hat: bureaucracy), though two of the main Vong characters (Nom Anor and Nen Yim) are both rebellious spirits who break their society's mold in different ways, while neither buying in to the brutal religion that shapes most of their culturenote Nom is purely selfish and manipulates the Vong political/military structure for his own benefit; Nen is an idealistic scientist who defies law and tradition in order to better serve her people. Still, it's practically unheard of to see an apathetic Vong; they're almost all intensely devoted to something.

The Hunger Games: Each of the districts has a different primary industry, which serves as its theme. This is an Invoked Trope in the Hunger Games, since the tributes are each trope are traditionally dressed in ways that reference their theme.

Shadows of the Apt: Every race in that world is a member of a hat (though to some degree this is justified, as their totem insect affects each race on a biological level). The Mantis-kinden are all lightning-fast and skilled in battle, the Flies are all cunning, extremely small and agile, Scorpions are big, bald, strong and bad-tempered, Beetles are Made of Iron and stocky, Moths are delicate and mystical, Ants are superstrong and devoid of personality and Spiders are all beautiful seducers/seductresses with an innate taste for intrigue. This gets further generalized as the races get categorized as Apt or Inapt. If a character is Apt, then they'll be technologically adept and kinda unattractive, whereas the Apt are incapable of understanding technology more advanced than a lever, are good-looking and are magically capable.

The Narn start off as the Proud Warrior Race, the Minbari as Elves, the Vorlons as Mysterious Elders, and the Centauri as the declining Roman Empire. The Narn become Warrior Poets, the Minbari lose all hats due to a civil war, and the Vorlons gain (or rather, reveal) a Law hat. The Shadows also happen to gain the Chaos hat, while the Drazi steal the Proud Warrior Race. The uniformity of the alien cultures compared to humanity is lampshaded in the episode "The Parliament of Dreams," where each of the major races puts on a display of their global religion, while Sinclair arranges dozens upon dozens of people to represent humanity's multitudes of religions (even including a nonreligious atheist). Ultimately humanity's "hat" is explicitly defined (by Delenn) as community-building — humans automatically and unthinkingly weave together disparate groups into communities. The Narns also have more than one religion, but weren't seen to put on a demonstration in "The Parliament of Dreams".

The hats come off slightly as the series goes on. Londo points out that, to be a success in Centauri society, you have to be a schemer; there are plenty who don't, it's just that their families dwindle to insignificance. Delenn points out that both the religious and warrior castes have been ignoring the worker caste since Valen founded the Grey Council, and since they are fairly isolationist, we usually only get to see those who are on government business, who tend to be religious caste (possibly this is just because Delenn is religious), the military (and hence the warrior caste, although Londo does tell Earth Gov that this is not quite the same thing), or the Rangers, who are an elite undercover military force, with the obvious hats.

The Minbari hat is tradition, whichever caste it comes from. This certainly applies to both Delenn and Lennier, though sometimes we get to see Beneath the Mask.

The Abbai's hat is a focus on "community", the Brakiri's hat is business (more corporate culture as an ideal, rather than a Star Trek Ferengi-style "profit," though of course that is their ultimate goal). The Drazi's hat is pretty much "violence" — more specifically, the idea that a brawl pretty much solves any problem. The Llort's hat is basically kleptomania. The Shadows and Vorlons of course proudly promote their hats of "chaos" and "order and obedience" respectively, and try their hardest to make the younger races wear them too.

Lidsville takes the concept to its furthest extreme — a world entirely populated by actual anthropomorphic talking hats. Amusingly, despite being a planet of literal hats, it was not a planet of figurative hats.

Farscape had an episode on the planet Litigara where 90 % of inhabitants were lawyers and the remaining 10 % servants who ran the various non law-related services.

It could be called a planet of balaclavas, since that's what the lawyers always seemed to wear. Also, the Judge wore a hat that was a mix between a sombrero and a dinner plate, and (like the uniform) the colour looked like Dolores Umbridge picked it out.

The Nebari are presently attempting to make their home planet a Planet of Hats through brutal enforcement of the law- to the point that dissenters are often simply brainwashed into perfect citizens. As a result, the only Nebari encountered in the show are either cold-hearted police officers or rebellious criminals like Chiana.

The Time Lords might be described as a planet of very silly hats indeed (look up images some time and try not to giggle). They tend to be portrayed as very Lawful Neutral (with frequent forays into Lawful Stupid) philosophers and scholars who one alien describes as a race of "ancient dusty senators" who were "peaceful to the point of indolence". The Doctor is very much an exception, being more of a Chaotic Good rebel and nonconformist, whom his people barely tolerate (though they sometimes need his help). There is some debate, however, on whether or not "Time Lord" is the same as "person from Gallifrey", and if this applies to the general populace of the planet or just the ruling class.

Justified in the case of both the Daleks and Cybermen, who are created races rather than natural ones. The Daleks are genetically engineered to feel no emotions but hatred and xenophobia, explaining their desire to destroy all non-Dalek life in the universe. The Cybermen have also had their emotions removed, and seek to survive by assimilating other races Borg-style. Their origins vary, however, as the classic series had them as a humanoid race that slowly lost their individuality as they replaced more and more of their bodies with technology, while the new series introduced an Alternate Universe version as the creation of one man, who intentionally removed their emotions so they could cope with the trauma of being "upgraded": they freak out and die if they remember who they are.

Along with these two are the Sontarans, a Proud Warrior Race of clones made to be the best at fighting and conquering any planet that looks at them funny. They are so into the whole warrior thing that their form of punishment is forcing the perpetrator into a job as a nurse.

The Ood appear to be a race of slaves, who want to be given orders. It turns out this is due to humans taking over their Hive Mind. The Ood, once freed, turn out to still be a peaceful race.

On at least two occasions, the Eleventh Doctor has, shortly after meeting some alien being, announced its species' hat, for expository purposes, apparently without caring about tact. note ("I take it from the pathological compulsion to surrender, you're from Tivoli," and "I love the Kahler. One of the most ingenious races in the galaxy, seriously. They could build a spaceship out of Tupperware and moss.")

The God Complex features Gibbis, who is apparently a member of a rather pathetic alien race whose hat is being a Dirty Coward. He mentions being abducted while planting trees along a road... so a conquering army can march in the shade.

Gibbis: "All I want is to go home and be conquered and oppressed, is that too much to ask?!"

The Twelve Colonies of Battlestar Galactica occasionally fall into this, in function if not in populace. Aerilon was the breadbasket of the colonies, and everyone from it is perceived to be some sort of hick (which is why Baltar adopted a more upper class accent). The Gemenese believe in the literal truth of scripture. Sagittarons are downtrodden, and mad about it. Taurons are stoic and traditional, and have a mafia equivalent (depending on your perspective, they're either Space Mexicans or Space People of the Mediterranean). Capricans have it made - their planet is the center of art, culture, science, and politics. There is, however, no physical look specific to the people of any planet. Hopefully, this means that Single-Biome Planet is avoided.

Caprica indicates that the title planet may have been a planet of actual hats, as well, at least 58 years before the Cylon genocide.

Particularly in the earlier episodes, nearly every planet the SG-1 team visits is based off of a particular human culture. It's a justified or at least handwaved by saying that the people were transplanted to that planet from Earth, and their culture has just been stagnating since. There are the Middle Ages, the Norse, the Greeks, and, of course, the ancient Egyptians, among others. Justified in that most of these planets were supposedly populated by people of earth who had been taken to that planet by one of the more highly-developed species - the Goa'uld and the Asgard being the typical abductors.

The Goa'uld deliberately stagnate the culture of any people they transplant. They like to keep them primitive, because 1) primitives are more easily coerced into worship by their awesome-but-impractical weapons, and 2) primitives are absolutely no threat to them (the Goa'uld really hate it when people become advanced enough to see they aren't gods). Earth only developed to the point of beinga threat because the Goa'uld lost access to the Earth stargate and then *forgot where the planet was*. The Asgard also (somewhat) stagnated the Norse people they transplated because a treaty they had with the Goa'uld didn't allow any protected planet (the planets the Goa'uld agreed not to touch) to develop to a point where they would be a threat to them. The Asgard were not in a position to fight the Goa'uld due to the war with the Replicators, so the transplanted humans were kept relatively primitive (though not so much as the Goa'uld transplanted ones) for their protection.

In the episode "2001", the Aschen are described as: "They don't get excited in general, General. It's like an entire planet of accountants." Their more significant hat is planetary genocide.

The Nox, had preachy pacifism as their hat as well as literal funny hats.

The Goa'uld hat appears to be arrogance and sense of superiority, something that is present even in the Tok'ra, non-malevolent Goa'uld.

The Jaffa are a Proud Warrior Race as a result of their entire species being enslaved to serve as the Goa'uld military.

The Asgard hat is clearly science and scholarship as we never meet an Asgard who does any kind of physical labor. This is also justified as thousands of years of cloning have weakened their bodies to the point that an excited hug can hurt them.

Earth also has its own hat: Genre Savvy. SG-1 is the most Genre Savvy of them all, but most other minor characters show at least some signs of this trait. We Tau'ri have a technological hat, too— instead of basing more advanced tech off more exotic principles, we use fundamentally basic equipment in increasingly refined ways. This is particularly noted in our really spectacular projectile weapons.

In Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith are a race consisting solely of warriors who live to eat. In the last season, Todd the Wraith mentions that feeding on humans is the driving force in their society with little beyond that. We did finally get a small glimpse of Wraith society in Season 5's "The Queen." Judging from that episode, the entire society is divided into Queens, who seem to spend their time intimidating one another, their male Advisors/Viziers, who seem to specialize in Magnificent Bastardry, and the possibly asexual Drones, whose duties apparently involve patrolling ships and standing guard (not unlike actual Soldier Drones in Bee colonies). All of them are in thrall to a prime Queen (called The Primary in this particular segment shown, but this may not be the case with every Wraith alliance). Exactly where the various Male Wraiths who serve as scientists and field commanders (who are also uniformly errhm, uniformed in leather) fit into this mix is never really shown.

Red Dwarf had Rimmerworld, a planet populated by Rimmer clones. The population idealized the core aspects of Rimmer... which happened to be cowardice, backstabbing, snottiness, arrogance, and hunger for power. Those that deviated were hunted down and executed.

The Neighborhood of Make-Believe segment of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood deconstructed this trope, in a child-appropriate way, with alien visitors from the Planet Purple. Everyone from this planet has purple skin and hair, they dress in identical purple clothes and speak in a monotone voice, and all the boys are named Paul and all the girls are named Pauline. They were used to illustrate how boring the world would be if everyone was the same.

An unusual example is Inquiris. Little is known about the planet, save that the natives, for whatever reason, cannot make declarative or exclamatory statements. Yes, a planet who's hat is literally a specific type of sentence.

The very basis of Sliders, where our protagonists would land, I mean slide, into a parallel Earth defined by a key difference with "real" Earth.

Prince Valiant occasionally features Islands of Hats. When Val is on a sea voyage, it's somewhat common for his ship to get waylaid by supernatural means. One of two things then happens: either Val is put to some bizarre test, or he comes to an island where all the inhabitants share a single characteristic.

Radio

An episode of X Minus One featured a reptilian alien coming to a mining planet for one of their workers (basically a milder version of a Furian). The reptile alien's hat is that they Cannot Tell a Lie (although they don't have to say the whole truth either) while the "Furian's" hat is being Hot-Blooded. Lampshaded by the "Furian": "You know how they say we're all good at bar fights?"

Star Trek

The Star Trek series are actually the prime examples of this trope, nearly every species having one defining trait. This was often subverted in the Expanded Universe, and occasionally in-show.

Humans in the 24th century seem to own hemp vests with V-neck shirts underneath, and nothing else.

"A Piece of the Action" is interesting because the culture's true hat was mimicking others — their entire society had been built around a book about 1920s gangsters in Chicago.

In the final issue of the Marvel comic book series Star Trek Unlimited, after being visited by the Enterprise they experienced a cultural revolution and began dressing like Kirk and co., which the Enterprise-D discovered. The concept of revisiting the planet and discovering a similar effect was considered for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but dropped in favor of revisiting "The Trouble with Tribbles" instead.

Moq'bara is the martial art practiced by Klingons everywhere, because while a peaceful society like the Federation will have hundreds of styles ranging from kung fu to boxing, a warrior culture will clearly only have one.

A more accurate hat for the Klingons might be violence rather than warrior. Even outside of the militaristic aspects of Klingon culture, it seems that violence permeates every aspect of their lives: religious, legal, ceremonial, and interpersonal. There are very few Klingon rituals seen that do not involve bloodletting, legal disputes are more often than not resolved with sword-play, Klingon sexuality is alwaysDestructo-Nookie, even their wedding ceremony—at least the long version seen in You are Cordially Invited...—involves a triumphant retelling of how the Kliingons killed their gods, followed by sword-play, followed by vows which include a promise to kill each other's enemies, followed by the wedding party attacking the bride and groom. In war or peace, the Klingons are always, always violent.

The Ferengi are all profit all the time, plus misogyny. Culturally, money is sort of their state religion. Ferengi tourist sites on their homeworld include the Great Marketplace and their stock exchange, and they consider any remotely non-capitalist actions (including things like giving workers holidays and allowing them to form unions) either incredibly distasteful or crimes worthy of being shunned from being allowed to do business with any Ferengi for. As for the misogyny: It's as though nobody has ever made the argument that allowing half of their population to earn money and buy things will be an economic boost.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fixed the misogyny part. Quark's mother Ishka instigates a cultural revolution that begins to give women an equal place in Ferengi society using that very argument.

Nog, meanwhile, attempts to escape the "all profit all the time" part by joining Starfleet. His rationale is this: some people just don't have "the lobes" for business. His father Rom, for example, has a lot of technical knowledge, able to fix Quark's replicators and holosuites, often from scavenged parts. But his lack of business acumen keeps him from rising above the level of being a waiter/gofer for Quark. Nog knows he doesn't have the lobes for business either, but knows he can still make a good life for himself without having to become a businessman. Even then, he still has some business sense, as he quickly becomes The Scrounger for Chief O'Brien in "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River".

Actually, the Ferengi themselves are victims of flanderization, in the opposite direction of the Klingons. When first presented, Ferengi Heavy Cruisers were on par with the Federation's Galaxy Class capital ships, and they had a disdain for what humans would consider soft, attractive features. In one episode of TNG, a group of Ferengi are seen commenting on the ugliness of Beverley Crusher, due to her pale skin and soft features. Compare this to the DS9 Ferengi, who are basically all about Where The White Women At when they aren't concerned with profit. The decision to flanderize them into their current form was one done by Rick Berman, and is noted on Memory Alpha. However, even in their current flanderized form, their true hat is deception. Too bad the Romulans and Cardassians also wear this hat, arguably better. Also, while it's treated as more of a side-effect, the Ferengi are very good with numbers and math. This doesn't come up much on screen, but it's made pretty clear in Deep Space Nine between the robustness of Ferenginar's economy and the complexity of their Poker variant.

The Cardassians are all service to the state all the time, in that Cardassians will always claim that whatever it is they're doing, it's for the good of Cardassia. By virtue of being the focus of Deep Space Nine (along with the Bajorans), we get a very rounded view of life within the Deadly Decadent Court of Cardassia. A significant number of Cardassians are all Magnificent Bastardry all the time because of this, while others are far more straightforward examples. Some, like Garak, are both. One guy even tried to shame his government into admitting the atrocities the Cardassians had committed against the Bajoran people during their occupation of the Bajoran homeworld...for the good of Cardassia. Although note that it's not clear whether this is an innate quality or something fostered by centuries of indoctrination by the military dictatorship that ruled them until DS9 season 4.

Also from Deep Space Nine were Odo's people, The Founders, whose hat was essentially "order", both small and big scale. They were given a reason for itnote Essentially having been betrayed and shafted by "solids" in the past, making them extra-strength paranoid, but were pretty forceful in making others put the hat on too.

The Jem'Hadar are the soldiers who serve under the Founders. Their hat is that they're all genetically engineered and bred to be Blood Knights. They have a ritual prayer before engaging in a fight.

We are dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives!

The Wadi from the Gamma Quadrant are all about playing games. Making first contact with them proved to be exceptionally boring for Commander Sisko, because Quark proved to be a better host just because he had all the games.

The Orions, the go-to example of the Green-Skinned Space Babe, are all about Seduction. Their society is Matriarchal because females give off natural pheromones that allow them to easily "persuade" the weak willed - specifically, the male gender of just about every alien species that exists.

Tellarites "do not argue for reasons, they simply argue." Spoken by a member of a species that apparently doesn't have such great relations with the Tellarites, but eventually proven true once we get to meet more. Negotiations are often opened by trading insults.

Conformity as a Hat has been done a few times, most notably with the Borg. With the introduction of Seven of Nine, "efficiency" and "perfection" were added.

Cheron in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is (or rather, was), supposedly, a planet of racists. (They are black on the left side. We are black on the right side!)

Supposedly the El-Aurian hat is "listening", but we've only met three members of the species... one (Guinan) specializes in listening, but one was a con man (in a Deep Space Nine episode which lampshaded the "listening hat" thing by having a fellow prisoner try to come up to the con man and tell him his life story in jail, whereupon he responded by begging the guards to take the guy away from him) and one was a mad scientist. In that sense the El-Aurians have managed to subvert the usual Trekkian "one hat per species" rule. Although Guinan literally does wear some awesome hats.

That said, the mad scientist was still quite effective at listening. He would listen to Picard trying to talk him out of his mad scheme to blow up a star, and then rpeatedly No Sell a Patrick Stewart Speech because of it.

Taking place clear across the galaxy from these others, Star Trek: Voyager has its own hat species, such as the Kazon (society revolves around infighting between the various rival groups), the Vidiians (society revolves around medicine and organ-stealing due to the disease they have), the Hirogen (society revolves around "the hunt"), and Species 8472 (society revolves around eradicating lesser, "weak" species.)

In the case of the Hirogen, there's a slight Deconstruction when one of their leaders comes to realize that wearing their hat is causing their species to devolve. There was a point where they were a highly developed species, even developing the enormous communications array, but as hunting dominated their entire culture they became a nomadic race with no homeworld who just hunted various parts of space before moving on. Hunting Voyager causes them to realize how far they've fallen and they soon attempt to use Holodeck technology to become less nomadic and more stable as they rebuild the civilization.

Want to do a Green Aesop in Voyager? Then it's time to wheel out the Malon, whose hat is, of all things, pollution. They're saved from being an entire race of Captain Planet villains because they're not polluting just for the sake of it — it's simply that they've never bothered to invent "clean" technologies as long as the waste is transported a long way from the homeworld. To make matters worse, they know that they can use clean technologies without any hassle, but making the switch would have devastating effects on their own society. The exporting of industrial waste is the backbone of the race's entire economy.

In a similar fashion to the Hirogen mentioned above, the Gamma Quadrant features the Tosk, who are also obsessed with hunting. The key difference though, is that they specifically breed members of their own race just to be the hunted target. To be the hunted is the greatest honor anyone of their species can ever be given. They live just to be hunted, give their pursuers a good chase, try to outsmart them for as long as possible, and eventually be killed. Being captured is the greatest dishonor imaginable.

Humans don't quite have a Hat, and — especially in the Gene Roddenberry days — were sort of the anti-hat: Having finally gotten it right, humanity's made a perfect future for itself, finally free of the undesirable qualities that some of the other species represent. Then again, being "perfect" eventually became humanity's hat, until the Deep Space Nine era, where that hat was rather rudely yanked off, set on fire, and thrown into a wood chipper. Alternatively, from the perspective of the other species, it would seem that condescension became humanity's hat. Every non-Federation character seemed to find humans in general and Starfleet officers in particular extremely patronizing.

On Star Trek: Enterprise, Vulcan Ambassador Soval complains at length about humanity's lack of a Hat: "Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic!" Admiral Forrest then lampshades it.

Admiral Forrest: I'm sure those traits are found in every species.

Soval: Not in such confusing abundance.

Soval goes on to explain that pre-logic Vulcans were similarly hatless in a way that now scares them.

In the original pilot, the Human Hat was a hatred of captivity—even pleasant, benevolent captivity.

Knowledge/Exploration could be the human hat. Most of the other races explored the galaxy, but for profit, power or domination.

The modern novels often suggest that humanity's hat is creativity. In one novel, a Tellarite says creativity defines humans as logic defines Vulcans. This creativity expresses itself in various ways, including the formation of a vast variety of cultures, religions and nations that outnumber those of most other species, making the apparent lack of a hat actually a part of our hat.

Another possible hat for humans is freedom. Several episodes have someone telling an alien how humans hate imprisonment (even if it is paradise) or how they require a challenge to truly live.

In Star Trek: Enterprise, Archer (however unintentionally) proposes that humanity's hat is diplomacy; humans know when it's time to put aside their differences and look at the bigger picture. This is perhaps the primary reason every other galactic power is an empire of some sort, while the Federation is a coalition.

On the flip side of the Federation (pun definitely intended) is the Terran Empire of the Mirror Universe, whose hats are Treachery and Subjugation. Ever since Nazi Germany took over the world in World War 2, Humans have developed to conquer and enslave all who stand in their way. Tellarites? Slaves. Andorians? Slaves. Vulcans? Slaves AND corrupted to a point where they see the logic of conquering others, and agree with it. In sharp contrast, Cardassians and Klingons aren't too different than their normal universe selves, but they're allied with each other just to fight against the Terran Empire, making them the good guys in the grand scheme of things.

An alien on Voyager once used this trope to describe different species — his own species' hat was an inherent understanding of languages (they are living Universal Translators, capable of learning any language- written, spoken, or computational- just by hearing or seeing a few words or numbers) while humanity's was "a great generosity of spirit." However, it turned out he was buttering the Voyager crew up so he could get revenge on them for indirectly causing his own species' extinction.

The episode "Patterns of Force" has the Nazi Planet. (Not their native hat, it was imported by a Well-Intentioned Extremist historian from Earth).

The Bretheren are another "hunt" race, but they don't like it when they lose. They're aligned with the D'Myurj, whose hat is "enlightenment". Except for one, who believes that life itself will destroy the multiverse.

As noted above, there are actually several episodes with planets whose inhabitants made their hat by copying something from Earth — gangsters, Nazis, ancient Greeks...

A Star Trek spinoff novel lampshaded this one by explaining that on most planets, war and oppression and genocide have had a homogenizing effect on sentient species. Humans figured out how to live together peacefully before that happened to them. As a result, Earth has a far greater range of cultural and ethnic diversity than can be found on most other planets.

While the Bajorans are one of the most varied races in Star Trek, they do have two hats, they're all deeply religious (but not fanatics) and they're mostly ex-freedom fighters. In general, the ones in the religious hierarchy have a calm spirituality (even Kai Winn is good at faking it) and the rest are quick to anger.

Bajoran religious leaders do tend to have a degree of political power that would make the Medieval Catholic Church blush

The Pakleds all act like they have serious developmental problems, coming across as mentally and socially retarded. But in large part, it is an act. And in the words of Data's... actually stunted brother, "they are fat".

Given they only played an in-person role in one episode, it it hard to say what is characteristic of the Pakleds as a whole, and what was characteristic of the specific group of Pakleds in their introductory and sole speaking appearance episode (Samaritan Snare). Certainly, those Pakleds very an unholy blend of Obfuscating Stupidity and just plain stupidity, and the Pakleds have a clearly poor reputation, but given that several of the background extra Pakleds worked as mechanics when maintenance was one of the main things the Samaritan Snare Pakleds proved unable to do...

In "The Mark of Gideon," Kirk was kidnapped by a race whose universal pro-life tendencies had led to horrible overpopulation, to the point that they tried to start a pandemic with germs from Kirk (who had been exposed to meningitis in the past).

The Caldonians in "The Price" are a race of scholars who are so dedicated to pure research they don't want to be distracted by administrative tasks.

The Breen's hat in DS 9 is basically "mysterious and enigmatic", to the point that no-one knows anything about them, including what they look like under their refrigeration suits, and whether they really need the suits in the first place. In the Star Trek Novel Verse, their hat is "anonymous egalitarianism"; they're a multi-species society who wear the suits so that each person is judged entirely on their merits and not as a member of whatever species they are (only one of which really needs the refrigeration properties). It's suggested that each race in the Breen Confederacy has their own hat, but given the above they try to keep quiet about it.

Star Wars

Not quite as obvious, but quite present: all Twi'lek girls are exotic dancers, all Hutts are gangsters, all Bothans are spies, all Ithorians are pacifists, etc. (See also Single-Biome Planet). Of course, almost any species, Hatted or not, may show up as a Jedi (even a Hutt or two), and there are numerous other exceptions. In recent years, some writers grew tired of these stigmas and began lampshading and subverting them—for example, showing a couple of Ithorian criminals in one of the Knights of the Old Republic comics and claiming that Ithorians "stay all peaceful and polite" by "throwing guys like these out." In many cases, the hats in Star Wars seem to have been placed by the fans or Expanded Universe writers. The films indicate that at the very least, nearly every species in the galaxy has senators. Gungan society shows a diversity, featuring overbearing rulers, goofy outcasts and courageous soldiers.

Also in KOTOR, one Twi'lek on Taris is an entrepreneur in the upper city who comments that her business doesn't do as well as it should because people there expect her to wear the dancer hat.

KOTOR does, however, play the Wookiee life-debt hat absolutely dead straight with Zaalbar, and Hanharr has one but is filtering it through his Ax-CrazyChaotic Evil psychosis into an obsessive desire to kill the object of said life debt.

Star Wars Legends has even given us a Hutt Chancellor of the Republic (Blotus), who is noted to have been a fair, honest, popular leader.

In Planet of Twilight, there's even a Hutt Jedi called Beldorian or Beldorion (darksider, but still greatly atypical for a Hutt).

One of the novels, Starfighters of Adumar, takes place on a (human-occupied) planet whose Hat seems to be reverence for starfighter pilots combined with blood sport and melodrama. In time we get to see that these traits are more a specific country's Hat, and intelligent people from said country can be made to doubt their convictions with relative ease.

Interestingly, some of the human planets get Hats too. Especially Corellians (the planet of Never Tell Me the Odds), Alderaanians (philosophical pacifists), and Mandalorians (planet of Boba Fett). Corellia actually has multiple hats. For one, they are the planet of the Ace Pilot and the Badass Space Navy—Han Solo, Soontir Fel, and Wedge Antilles are all renowned for this. More negatively, however, they are the Commander Contrarian. It doesn't matter what they're rebelling against, they simply rebel and bristle under galactic authority.

The Twi'Lek example above was eventually explained. In Legends, the Twi'lek homeworld of Ry'loth is a Death World that is tidally locked to the local star. Half the planet burns, the other half freezes. Civilization can only exist in the narrow twilight band between the two extremes, and those are constantly wracked by heat storms and inter-clan warfare. Life is so awful that many Twi'lek will sell themselves into slavery just to get passage off the planet, and a chance of maybe having a better life. But again, we see plenty of Twi'lek that subvert this trope, like one who is a mother in The Clone Wars or Bib Fortuna, second in command of Jabba's empire.

Tatooinians are all excellent pilots, starting with Luke Skywalker and going from there. Rogue Squadron actually has a sixteen-year-old Tatooinian as Rogue Five. Lampshaded by the fact that when he wants to ask Corran a question about inter-species relationships, Corran thinks he doesn't know what sex is. Justified by the fact that Tatooine is a world with a lot of trackless desert and few settlements extremely far apart, so folks grow up using hovercraft and aircraft to get from place to place (though how that translates to flying spacecraft, well...).

Every member of Yoda's species is a wise Jedi master; all four of them.

Almost all examples from the Star Wars Legends are cases of flanderization: Authors will take the one mention a race or species has in the movies and expand it to be true for all members of that race or species. Luke got his dogfighting skills racing through desert canyons? All Tatooinians are great pilots. Leia says Alderaan has no weapons? They're all pacifists. Han says to never tell him the odds? All Corellians hate odds. Many Bothans died to get the Death Star plans? All Bothans are spies.

A worldbuilding article about the Yavin system has a framing device; it's about the memoirs of a famous Rodian explorer and it comes with this rather wry intro, lampshading the rather strict gender-based divisions of labor said to apply to many species in the EU.

In the days before the New Republic, common galactic wisdom held that all Rodian males feel the call of the hunt, while all Rodian females feel the call of performing for money, child-rearing, and food preparation. Common galactic wisdom about Rodians has largely been written by Rodian males. It is largely incorrect.

The authors of the X-Wing Series seem to have taken it as their assignment to buck those trends at every opportunity. Bothans are stereotyped as conniving spies and politicians, but Asyr Sei'lar is an accomplished fighter pilot with a warrior's sense of honor. Mon Calamari and Quarren are supposed to be at each other's throats, but Nrin and Ibitsam are close friends and eventually fall in love. Twi'leks supply several top-notch fighter pilots to contradict their species' image as merchants and cowards. Corellians are supposed to be flashy rogues and daredevils; meet Corran Horn, straight-laced ex-cop who spent his career in the force chasing smugglers like Han. Alderaanians are supposed to be pacifists: Tycho Celchu, Rogue Squadron's second in command and eventually leader, is from there. The gold medal goes to Voort saBinring, genetically enhanced Gamorrean; while the rest of his species typically only shows up as dimwitted thugs, Voort is an elite fighter pilot and commando who, when he retires, goes on to teach mathematics at a university. Also occasionally lampshaded by the pilots themselves: in Wraith Squadron, three of the pilots slip onto an Imperial-controlled world by pretending to be from Agamar, a world whose residents are stereotyped as dumb hicks.

Further played with in that the three pilots learned how to imitate the stereotype by asking their highly trained, intelligent, and erudite ship's captain, who was native to Agamar.

Tabletop

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons splits the old traits of the elf race into two new races called "elves" and "eladrin". Because, you know, you can't have a single species wearing the intellectual hat and the close-to-nature hat at the same time.

Humanity's hat in 4th edition is being driven, ambitious, The Determinator, and being able to learn things faster than other races because of their shorter lifespans.

In GURPS Fantasy 2: The Madlands, there is the region of Savringia. Thousands of years previously, two godlike entities decides to have a contest to see which one could create the most unlikely society. So they reduced themselves to energy and used that to create City-states of Hats. Currently there are about 30 but this is subject to change. There are the more ordinary Cities of Merchants, Tradesmen, and Priests, but there are also esoteric ones like Cities of Judges, Spiders, Grays, Silence, and the Fickle.

From the same publisher comes GURPS Aliens and GURPS Fantasy Folk, which also fall under this trope.

Since the expansion of Magic: The Gathering's focus to outside of Dominaria, most planes seem to follow this sort of pattern. For instance, Kamigawa resembles Feudal Japan in culture and aesthetics, Mirrodin is made almost entirely from metal, Innistrad is an darker version of Uber Wald, and Zendikar is an adventurer's paradise with constantly-shifting landscapes and an endless number of unexplored ruins.

While the planet Cray in Cardfight!! Vanguard is diverse as a whole, its nations and clans tend to have hats.

Nations:

Magallanica is the sea nation.

Zoo is the animals-plants-insects/nature nation.

Star Gate is the space-themed nation.

Dark Zone is the dark-themed nation.

Dragon Empire is what it sounds like.

Averted with United Sanctuary, which has 3 kinds of knights, 2 corporations and a nursing organisation.

Clans:

Royal Paladins and Gold Paladins are heroic knights.

Shadow Paladins are dark knights and later antiheroes.

Angel Feather consists of angels in nurse outfits.

Kagero are fire dragons.

Narukami are thunder dragons.

Tachikaze are prehistoric-themed.

Nubatama and Murakum are ninjas.

Nova Grapplers are prizefighters.

Dimension Police are mecha and superheroes.

Link Joker are alien invaders.

Great Nature is an uplifted animal university.

Megacolony is the insect mafia.

Neo Nectar are plant/farming-themed.

Aqua Force are a well-intentioned extremist navy.

Bemuda Triangle is composed of mermaid pop stars.

Granblue is composed of zombie pirates.

Spike Brothers is a violent American Football team.

Pale Moon is a circus as a front for assassins.

Dark Irregulars are movie-monster-themed.

Many worlds in Warhammer 40,000 are characterised by this — everyone from Cadia is a soldier, everyone from Krieg (German for "war") is an exceptionally grim and dour soldier in a longcoat, everyone from Catachan is Rambo. To be fair, they come from a planet sitting at the gates to a Negative Space Wedgie from hell, a (self-made) radioactive wasteland, and a JungleDeath World full of carnivorous plants and even worse animals respectively. The hats are likely survival mechanisms. For Imperial hats, the Imperium is a basically a portmanteau of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church, the Third Reich and the U.S.S.R all turned Up to Eleven, so everyone being the same is not so incredible.

For Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines, this is largely justified due to the fact that they all share genetic material with the primarch of their chapter - essentially, they have all been deliberately modified to be the same.

Tau (technically not a hat for the whole culture, but every caste has a specific purpose, and you're born into your caste, with crossbreeding between castes illegal. To be fair, the ethereals are breeding the perfect warriors, builders, diplomats etc... and even though they've only had a few thousands years, they may even technically be different species by now.)

Every Ethereal is a ruler of some sort.

Every member of the Fire caste is a warrior.

Every member of the Earth caste is a builder/scientist/engineer.

Every member of the Water caste is a bureaucrat/diplomat/politician.

Every member of the Air caste is a pilot/navigator/starship crewmember.

Some of the Tau sept-worlds have specific headgear, too. Everyone from N'dras is brooding, everyone from Ke'l'shan refuses to give up, everyone from Fal'shia is a problem solver and the list goes on and on.

The Imperial Guard

Everyone from Cadia is immensely proud and vaguely like the Canadian army.

All Reiklanders are skilled marksmen and consummate professional soldiers.

All Middenlander are hairy barbarians with a liking for blunt weapons.

Hochlanders are accomplished hunters and crack shots with hunting rifles and longbows.

Skaven - originally there were fourfive defined major clans: Skryre, the crazy techo-magical inventors; Moulder, the insane fleshcrafting breeders of monsters; Eshin, the cloaked espionage and assassination division; Pestilens, the gibbering worshipers of plague and decay; Mors, the now extremely powerful martial clan. A recent book on heraldry introduced scores of minor clans, each their their own (slightly smaller) hat.

Vampire Counts - Each Vampire Count will be from one of several bloodlines: Von Carstein (classic Dracula-style vampires, although recently have been modeled to be a lot more bestial), Lahmians (pseudo-Egyptian female vampires. With cats), Blood Dragons (honour-bound martial powerhouses who exist only for combat and proving themselves), Strigoi (horribly deformed ghouls with no link to their humanity at all) and Necrarchs (Nosferatu-like intellectuals who are wizened but terrifyingly powerful when it comes to magic).

Shadowrun 3rd edition features a section with members of each of the Five Races giving you a brief introduction to their race. Most of them start by acknowledging their race's hat, then going on to tear it apart as racist bullcrap. Except the dwarf, since their hat is being short.

Dwarves also have a hat of being technical wizkids. The dwarf explaining this has trouble working out how to fix a toaster.

Shadowrun does a good job of deconstructing the hats/stereotypes for each race. For instance, the dwarf states that a lot of dwarves live underground because basement apartments are cheaper and they don't mind the low ceilings. Amusingly enough, the human points out how he's different from the other races by mentioning the other races' hats and stating how Humans don't have any of those.

Traveller is a little more complex about this. Humans overall are as complex as, well, humans, though individual worlds often have a hat. The Aslan's hat is Proud Warrior Race, though arguably that quality is detailed well enough to take the hattiness away. The K'kree are Vegetarian Jihadists (yes, really). The Zhodani's hat is Psionics.

A vast majority of the various D-Bees in Rifts fall neatly into this trope. The Simvan are all nomadic warriors with a psychic connection to animals, the Larmac are all lazy, the Naruni are all shrewd businessmen, etc. Occasionally exceptions to this trope will be made in the case of individual NPCs, but the description almost always includes the statement "Unlike most members of X's race..."

Space Munchkin The RPG had the Bumpy Foreheaded Alien race, which is actually a category for all races of this type in scifi. You chose (or randomly rolled) your one distinguishing racial feature, the concept that your culture is entirely devoted to and the concept from human culture your culture cannot understand ("We have no word for this thing you call 'modesty'")

Each Splat in the Old World of Darkness represents a Hat. Taking Vampire: The Masquerade as an example, most players choose their clan/Hat from the Brujah (rebellion), Gangrel (wilderness), Malkavian (insanity), Nosferatu (secrecy), Toreador (art), Tremere (magic), or Ventrue (wealth). Being Hatless here brands you a Caitiff, giving you the outcast Hat. For all that the Clans are stated to be diverse (and some atypical examples are given as character templates in the splatbooks) canon characters are almost always at most slight variations on a Hat.

Exalted: Amongst humans, this trope seems to come up in the Dragon-Blooded, both in term of caste-marks and in Houses. Amongst everyone else, you can expect a Dragon-King to be either kung-fu master seeking to rebuild his or her near-extinct race, or a mindless brute who kill anyone who gets into their territory. And a Jadeborn is either a Worker, Warrior, or an Artisan, as Autochthon willed them.

Stars Without Number: alien races usually have Lenses, essentially a way of randomly rolling for Hats. You might have a culture with, say, Curiosity and Wrath, or Collectivism and Fear, or Sagacity and Pride, as the defining cultural traits.

Generally in Rocket Age all Venusians are warrior poets, all Ganymedians are noble savages and all Europans (aside from the Emissary Corps) are arrogant and superior. However, this becomes subverted the more is learnt about every planet and it's peoples.

The Mutants & Masterminds book Worlds of Freedom says: "Most worlds have one philosophy, racial makeup, language, and extraordinary ability common to all planetary natives, but Earth is rich in contrasting cultural traditions."

Subverted in a couple of cases with examples of My Species Doth Protest Too Much; the Vux all find humans utterly disgusting, but Admiral Zex really really likes them, to an uncomfortable degree. We are also told of a group of Spathi who are completely fearless and travel the galaxy performing daring acts. And the Zoq Fot Pik are actually three different races, whose combined hats appear to be bickering, not remembering which of them is which, and Frungy.

The Fan Discontinuity sequel Star Control 3 takes this to strange extremes, with many aliens having unbelievably specific Hats. The Owa, for instance, practice chivalry and know about antimatter science, and you never learn anything else about them.

The world in Pokémon seems to be a Planet of Hats as well — much of culture and society revolves around Pokémon, from the economy (shops and huge department stores which sell only Pokémon-related goods) to the government. And since every town is surrounded by tall grass, it's technically impossible to even leave town without a Pokémon of your own.

Throughout the entire series, this trope is played to varying levels of straight, aversion and subversion. It is made very clear from the start that while each alien race does have its own unique, defining aspects, there are outliers to every species.

Wrex has a response for Garrus when he confronts Wrex with the same observation: 'I suppose it was easier to unleash a genocide virus on the krogan when you thought we were all mindless monsters, turian.' Of course, Garrus was just a detective in C-Sec before signing on with Shepard, so insinuating that he's at all responsible for the genophage (because he's a turian, and turians wronged krogans, so obviously...) is a mite hypocritical of Wrex. Or precisely his point.

According to aliens, humanity's hat is that they're a bit of a loose cannon. Also, we seem to be evolving towards a monoculture with minimal racial differences due to globalization - we just haven't gotten quite as far as the other races, yet. The Batarians also see humans as the Jerk Ass (and vice versa), mostly due to competition over colonizing the same region of space.

As the story progresses, it is slowly becoming revealed that Humanity's "hat" is The Determinator. They use their ingenuity to adapt to meet whatever kind of challenge is thrown at them. Use a binding treaty to restrict the number of Dreadnoughts (essentially a ship built around a BFG) that they can utilize? They invent a new class of ship that is not bound by this restriction, yet can stand toe to toe against such ships (a reference to the US's circumventing the Washington Naval Treaty limiting the construction of battleships by developing aircraft carriers instead). Reaper invasion looming on the horizon? Humans were the only race that even thought of the idea of destroying a Mass Relay (pretty much everyone else basically assumed it would be impossible). The Illusive Man resurrected Shepard primarily because Shepard was "more than just a soldier". Shepard had become the best traits of humanity distilled into one person; whether Shepard was more on the Jerk Ass side of things or not, Shepard definitely embodies The Determinator, and thus was worth the extreme financial and technological investment to preserve.

One of the defining traits of the quarians is having a hard time shaking their hats: being basically space gypsies with a criminal streak. Unfortunately for most well-meaning members of the species, two populations tend to make it stick: quarian criminals (who seem disproportionately common to other races because they get exiled from the flotilla) and over-zealous pilgrims (who don't care where they get useful technology from, so long as they can get done and get back home).

There's a lot of subversion of this trope in the franchise too. One of the main features of Mass Effect was that although each race has a hat, the hats also tend to come off a lot. Turians are presented as militaristic and disciplined, yet you encounter drunken turian soldiers, scientists, janitors and shopkeepers (one of whom is part of a Running Gag involving a human trying to return a purchase to his store.) Asari are presented as mediators and negotiators, yet we encounter asari commandos, strippers, pirates, slavers, and Machiavellian diplomats trying to manipulate Shepard to their own ends. Salarians are presented as spies and scientists, but we encounter salarian corporate officers, shopkeepers, mercenaries, and a group of impressively disciplined commandos. Krogans are supposed to be largely brainless brutes who dream of fighting in a massive horde yet we've encountered a mad scientist, a researcher note Amusingly, he actually wore the krogan hat proudly. Apparently he had to kill the previous head researcher to gain the position, a mechanic, and a love-stricken poet.

Some individuals will actually subvert their race's hat to their own ends. One Krogan businessman on Illium was extremely polite and well-spoken, but used his status as a Krogan for pure intimidation factor, an important asset on a world such as Illium. A "series of polite calls", indeed. Dr Mordin Solus in the second game explains to Shepard that because most people assume Salarians are physically weak scientist types as opposed to Turians and Krogans who are specifically known for their military prowess, his enemies never see him coming. It doesn't hurt that he's ex-Special Tasks Group.

Not to mention the Elcor, whose hat is that they speak in monotone but communicate using a lot of very subtle body language that most others can't interpret (or see). As such, their Translator Microbes account for this, establishing their tone ahead of time. Eventually you run into an elcor who has found a way around this:

Asari: Wait. Did you hack your translator so you could control your kinetic language processing? Elcor: With a sincerity such that skepticism would be deeply insulting: no.

Mass Effect 2 suggests humanity's hat is more likely to be discarded than other species. Mordin observes that most species tend to fit certain expectations—similar intelligence, biotic ability, behavior, what have you. While there are outliers in all species (geniuses and morons) humans tend to have more outliers than not.

Humans are seen as violent upstarts - some backstory material mentions that, although each race had internal wars, what the humans did to each other was regarded as especially hideous (even when compared to the Krogan). Also, humans are rapacious colonists and breeders.

The most common view is that if humans have a hat, it's hyper-ambition and pragmatism. We're also master of diplomacy, as in actual diplomacy: we're very good at manipulating others and lying through our teeth. After all, we became a Council race within a few years of getting FTL technology when other races have been trying for centuries to get a Council seat, and depending on actions you take in the first game, we can kill the rest of the Council off and leave humanity unopposed. Whether our hat is presented as a good thing or bad thing depends on whether the player goes Paragon (takes a sympathetic and idealistic view of aliens but generally holds that Humans Are Leaders) or Renegade (takes a rather ruthless "humans come first" approach).

The games even subvert this for species with only one representative. The second game's DLC introduces the yahg, who Liara classifies as a primitive race of hulking brutes who are limited to their home world because they slaughtered the First Contact team sent to establish terms with them. The yahg we meet is the freaking Shadow Broker.

Sten: "Get used to disappointment. People are not simple. They cannot be defined for easy reference in the manner of: 'the elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty.'"

Meteos, despite being a puzzle game, has a good number of these. There's a planet for robots, insomniacs, stubborn miners, shapeshifters, timid jumpers, gangsters, telepaths, bees, ninjas, and ascended psychics each.

The computer game Spaceward Ho! gets honorable mention. It's a light turn-based strategy affair and doesn't have culture, but planet ownership is indicated by hats. A variety of cowboy hats worn by the actual planets. (Santa hats if the game is played on December 25th.)

This actually makes a bit of sense: until space-travel, members of a race would have to fill all the economic niches necessary for survival; once there's easy star-travel, specialisation would be possible. See: finding a cheap toy made in the U.S., post-{globalism and Chinese capitalism}.

In Startopia, the alien races are each suited to one specific task — OK, two related tasks for the blue-collar Salthogs. Karmarama are purple four-armed hippies, that plant seeds. Turraken are two-headed nerds, that are all scientists. Sirens are sexy winged humanoids, and the only aliens in the game with obvious gender dimorphism, and they "love" others. And so on. The most specialised are the Grekka Targ, who are solely employed to run your communications gear.

The Greys are all experts in xenobiology after experimenting on all known races, so they run the sickbays. The Kasvagorians are all Proud Warrior Race Guys, making them useful only as security guards. The Zedem Monks are, well, a race of monks, whose hands have evolved to naturally be in the prayer gesture. The Polvakian Gem Slugs are all hedonistic aristocrats and an obvious parody of the Hutts.

The world of Loom is divided into xenophobic guilds, each with a specific craft, e.g. Weavers, Glassmakers, etc. Each guild's citizens seem to all bear the characteristics of their guild. For instance, the glassmakers value traits such as clarity and beauty, and have names like Luscent Bottleblower. Somewhat justified in that the thing that defines them is what their community was formed on in the first place.

Gilneas in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, even before worgen curse, seems to be a literal Nation of Hats. As far as you can see, everyone in the starting zone wears some kind of hat. And not just any hats, but nice hats!

Warcraft 2 had several examples of this trope among the human nations and orcish clans. Dalaran was all mages, Kul'Tiras was all sailors, Stromgarde was all warriors, Alterac was all snobs. The Twilight's Hammer was all end of the world cultists, the Stormreavers were all warlocks, Laughing Skull were all backstabbing traitors, Warsong could all do earsplitting battlecries, Bonechewers were all cannibals. In World of Warcraft, dwarves continue to fit this loosely. Ironforge dwarves are mostly smiths and disciplined warriors, Wildhammers are nature loving barbarians, and Dark Irons are all sneaky spies, thieves, assassins, and pyromaniacs.

Cataclysm has provided many races a chance to get new hats. Night elves can now be magi, something that was long forbidden in their culture. Dwarves can now be shamans, providing stark contrast to their otherwise industrial nature (at least of the Bronzebeard variety). Orcs are seriously divided over whether or not Garrosh Hellscream is a good leader—even though the should fully embrace a blood-and-thunder warrior. There is still a tremendous amount of hat wearing though, and while not all races have true hats, they have collective niches, which both the Horde and the Alliance forming parts of Six Race gang.

Despite what their name might suggest, the Space Pirates of Metroid aren't simply a gang of outlaws in space and are actually a distinct alien species that has piracy and galactic domination as its hats. There's also the Krikens of Metroid Prime:Hunters, who exist to raze other worlds to the ground.

Human colonies tend to take after one or two particular cultures; Harvest had a mix of American Midwest and Scandinavian, Reach's original Hungarian settlers still had a major influence on the planet's culture, the Rubble's population seems to be largely Hispanic, etc.

Done on purpose by the Covenant. The Prophets set up their society so that none of the various races could get by on their own (Elites are warriors, Grunts are laborers, etc.). One Elite spends the whole of Halo: Glasslands searching ancient texts to rediscover things like agriculture, to keep the Elite homeworld from total collapse.

This was the objective of the Smithy Gang in Super Mario RPG: To turn the Mushroom Kingdom into a world filled with... WEAPONS!

You also visit a couple Towns of Hats. Moleville is full of anthropomorphic moles who are all miners, Yo'ster Island has its entire populace (of Yoshis) obsessed with racing, Monstro Town is populated almost exclusively by monsters who have gone straight. But the weirdest has to be Marrymore, a town that is all about weddings. The only places of note in the entire town are a wedding chapel, and a fancy hotel for the honeymoon.

Several of the alien races in Ratchet & Clank come with their own hats. The most notable of these are the Lombaxes, a race of badass gearheads who can barely sit next to a piece of machinery or weaponry for five minutes without trying to modify it in some way.

Justified with the Amarcians in Tales of Graces. All of them seem to be scientists or engineers of some kind. We later find out that the Amarcians aren't actually a race, the word is just what the Fodrans called engineers. They're basically what happens when everyone from one job sector gets stranded on another planet so long they form their own culture. Most present-day Amarcians aren't aware of this though.

The United Powers League of Starcraft took some very drastic measures to turn Earth into one in order to remove all the differences that lead to wars and other conflicts. They made English the official language of the world, banned all the old religions in favor of a philosophy of the "divinity of mankind", and made cybernetics and genetic engineering illegal, among other things. Those who did not conform to these new standards were forcibly rounded up and executed, leading to a death toll of 400,000,000. Doran Routhe had 40,000 of these dissidents selected to be put into cryogenic sleep and sent off to colonize other worlds, leading the Terrans to populate the Koprulu Sector that serves as the main setting of the games.

Some planets in Doki-Doki Universe are defined by a single characteristic. For example, there is a planet where everyone likes gross things and a planet where animals keep humans as pets, among others.

Starbound: Each race as at least two components to their hats; Florans have the savage and plant-life hat, Humans currently are a race without a home planet, Glitch are stuck in the past due to an issue with programming (hence their name), Apex are ape-men who seem to follow the government strongly, Hylotl are fish people who are the most peaceful of the races, to the point of getting mockery from time to time, Avians are a strongly religious race with a heavy May Inca Tec aesthetic, and Novakids are Space Westerners with bodies composed of energy.

The fal'Cie of Final Fantasy XIII. There are over a million of them on Cocoon alone, and they are all Jerkass Gods who consider humanity to be essentially livestock. 100% of the fal'Cie are in on the plan to force the Creator to return by killing all of Cocoon's humans, which they figure will get his attention. Even the one whose job is to open the pod bay doors.

In Gems of War, each kingdom has a particular theme, and some involve a "hat" — piety, invention, etc. However, the quest character for each kingdom is sometimes in opposition to that theme rather than an exemplar of it; for example, the kingdom of temples and paladins (Whitehelm) has you receive your quests from a vampire (Sapphira) who is being attacked by the pious folk.

Played With to Hell and back in Stellaris. All species have Traits, biological instincts which are ingrained into them to make them, say, better sociologists, more inclined to disagree with each other, or happier when they have access to enslaved subjects, and Ethos which are ideological in nature and determine which government the species has; they may, for instance, make a species more individualistic or more collectivist, more spiritual or more materialistic, or more warlike or peaceful. Traits can only be changed to a very limited degree via genetic manipulation, while ethos changes very often depending on factors such as how far the colony's population is from the homeworld or how much free thought is encouraged or suppressed by government policy. Populations with different ethos may even form divergent factions which may push for independence from your empire, peacefully or not.

Downplayed in the The Elder Scrolls games, as many of the nations and peoples of Tamriel have leanings towards certain professions and characteristics but there are a lot of exceptions to the rule - generally, individuals who grew up in their homeland play the hats straight, while individuals who were raised in other lands tend to be exceptions. Nords are booze-loving, magic-hating Viking-esque Boisterous Bruisers, Bretons are Deadpan SnarkerFrench JerkMagic Knights, Redguards are badass swashbucklers and adventurous sailors, High Elves are all snobby supremacist wizards, Wood Elves are Noble Savages who are amazed by basic carpentry because of the ancient code which prevents them from ever harming plantlife, Dark Elves are all conservative and xenophobic pseudo-Hebrews with Blue and Orange Morality, Argonians are tree-worshipping Cloudcuckoolanders who are also masters of Vietcong-style guerrilla warfare, and Khajiit are Stupidity-ObfuscatingCat Ninjas who are addicted to sweets.

Web Animation

Parodied in the Flash-animation series Burnt Face Man. In the conclusion of episode 7, Bastard Man (yes, that's his name) steals all the world's air with a vacuum cleaner (yes, he did that) and tries to sell it to a "planet of shifty characters". Everyone on the planet is wearing a large overcoat and hat or they are hidden in the shadows, the main shifty guy telling Bastard Man that they might not pay him for the air because they're all "a bit shifty".

Several of these are visited in the fifth season of Bonus Stage, including a convention planet, a fist planet, and McWorld. As Joel says, "Isn't it great how every planet is named after its purpose?"

Web Comics

Melonpool's planet Melotia is a planet of couch potatoes. There's a Bizarre Alien Biology explanation, with their antennae resonating to Earth television broadcast frequencies.

In Sluggy Freelance the residents of the Dimension of Lame are all incredibly sweet, nice, rice cake-loving pacifists. The most deranged psychopath among them suffers an incredible bout of guilt after slightly bruising the toe of a murderous demon. Even the rules of the universe conform to this Hat: the sewers smell like flowers, fermentation doesn't exist, and all swear words are automatically replaced with a "bleep" noise.

Goats's Multiverse has entire Dimensions of Hats, such as Topeka Prime, the farm dimension, complete with cow computers. Each dimension, however, has a pub.

Curvyinvokes this; every Earth explicitly has a gimmick, and ours is apparently "Boring World".

Parodied in this episode of Mountain Time, as the astronauts are all too eager to attach a gimmicky label to a newfound planet.

Some of the aliens seen in Buck Godot seem to fit this trope, with all individuals seen having similar behaviour or jobs. However, just as many are as varied as humans both in behaviour and appearance.

Subverted in Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger! Groonch the Gnorch, a parody of Worf from Star Trek, says that despite being raised with the ideals of another alien race, he strives to be the kind of noble warrior honored by "the Gnorch peoples." Quentyn asks, "Which peoples?" Groonch then learns, to his complete surprise, that the Gnorch species is rather culturally diverse and only a handful of ancient tribes were as warlike as he thought. His own outfit is an odd cultural mishmash.

Used for some aliens in Spacetrawler. The Eebs are all Gadgeteer Genius telepaths with almost zero willpower. The Tornites are infamous for their bad fashion sense.

While not a planet, per se, the Jägers of Girl Genius have two hats. The first, is that they love fighting. The second is that... they love hats. No, really, they REALLY like hats. One Jäger had an entire short story about him going to get a new hat. There's even rules on how the hat must be acquired- you can't just go into a store and buy one.

The fighting is justified in that Jägers were once humans who chose to transform themselves because they loved fighting.

This obsession is not limited to just the Jaegers. In particular, Franz has been seen to follow the same rules of acquisition as the Jaegers, unsurprising as the dragon has likely fought alongside them for centuries, and Bang DuPree shares their fascination with magnificent headgear along with many other personality traits. Even the Wulfenbach entourage gets in on the trend eventually.

In Beyond the Impossible, everyone on planet Myridia is born with the power to create thousands of duplicates of themselves.

Western Animation

The reverse of this is used in the South Park episode "Cancelled": apparently every planet except Earth has only one species, with "a planet of deer, a planet of Asians," etc. Earth was started billions of years ago with creatures from all over the universe on one planet—-as part of an intergalactic Reality Show.

Futurama would often use ridiculous examples, i.e. the Neutral planet, the cannibal planet, planet of human-hating robots. In "Love and Rocket", Dr. Zoidberg (himself from a planet of Crustacean Space Jews) talks about the planets destroyed by loveradiation why not, "including two gangster planets and a cowboy world."

The opening of a certain episode sees the Planet Express crew return pantless and low on supplies from "the planet of the moochers."

There's also a literal Universe of Hats. Namely, when visiting the edge of our universe, the crew sees on the other side their identical alt-selfs, only they're all wearing cowboy hats.

One episode has them visit a series of alternate-universes-in-boxes; most of these universes are one-shot-gag Hat Universes, such as the hippy universe and the eyeless universe.

Not to mention the Harlem Globetrotters, with their own planet, university, and algebra.

Subverted in one episode: There is not, in fact, a radiator planet inhabited by radiator people. Or at least, the radiator that Fry made out with wasn't one.

Transformers Cybertron is very guilty of this. There are three planets where a great deal of the action takes place: Gigantion, the giant planet, is populated by massive Transformers obsessed with construction, aided by the tiny Mini-Cons. On Velocitron, the speed planet, the fastest rule and those who don't measure up are left in the dust. And on the unnamed Jungle Planet, might doesn't make right so much as it is right. As if Cybertron, a planet populated by giant transforming robots, wasn't enough of a hat planet in its own right. (Admittedly, "giant transforming robot" is a pretty cool hat.)

One episode of VeggieTales had two feuding Towns of Hats used for their Good Samaritan retelling. One town wore shoes and boots on their heads, and the other wore pots. The purpose was to show how people are divided by trivial differences, a rare acknowledgment of the silliness of Planets of Hats.

A three-part Pinky and the Brain episode involves the protagonists being taken to a city of hats. There, everyone is ... a hat.

Parodied; the Irken Empire includes such ridiculous territories as "Conventia, the Convention Hall Planet" and "Foodcourtia," a planet of nothing but restaurants. Justified because these planets don't seem to actually start out this way: one episode shows the Tallests after the conquest of the planet Blorch, deciding to make it a "parking garage planet" literally on the spot. The Irkens themselves are a culture based on height. Dib points out how stupid this is.

Another example might be the Planet Jackers, whose culture seems to revolve around collecting new planets to throw into their sun.

Fans generally assume that the Vortians were essentially a species of nothing but scientists. This is never made explicit on the show, but it is plausible, as they are almost always mentioned in relation to some sort of technological achievement. The only two important Vort characters, Lard Nar and Prisoner 777, were both inventors.

In Megas XLR, Jamie mentions to Kiva to take them to the "planet of the Space Amazons", to which Kiva replies "I'm from the future, not a comic book!". Though the post credits sequence seems to suggest such a planet exists...

The titular anthropomorphic ducks of The Mighty Ducks come from a planet whose entire culture revolves around hockey. Yes, seriously.

Most episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show featured Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach travelling to a different world built around a particular theme (e.g., karate, rock-n-roll, cowboys, rap). Also, Bowser and his minions always seemed to conform to the "hat" of the world, appearing as a different stock villain in each episode.

Earthworm Jim had that one planet inhabited by people that are easily startled.

People: AAARGH! Something green! AAARGH! Something not green!

PsyCrow: I love this planet.

Darkwing Duck had some fun with this trope in one episode, where our hero visits the planet Mertz, where every single person is a superhero (complete with everyone having a totally unnecessary secret identity.) There is only one person on the planet without super powers, whose name is actually Ordinary Guy. Everyone else spends their entire lives trying to rescue him from peril (which in practice means gigantic, city-smashing brawls over who gets to help him cross the street.) Needless to say, Ordinary Guy's life sucks. Eventually, he snaps and becomes the planet's first and only supervillain. This gives him an outlet for his rage, and gives the heroes some actual evil to fight, making everyone much happier.

An absolutely literal version of this trope is used as well: Two episodes featured aliens from a planet where all aliens actually are hats, who hop onto other beings' heads to control them.

Kaput & Zösky is a cartoon series based entirely on Planets of Hats. The titular characters wander from planet to planet, hoping to find one where the population's hats make them easy to conquer and pleasant to rule.

The Eggs follows the colourful adventures of the four anthropomorphic egg college graduates as they continue their mission through the Loonyverse to search out valuable new sounds for their music-loving home planet of Kazoo. Not only is Kazoo a Planet of the Hats (the hat being music), but every world they visit seems to have its own specific hat.

The Yolkians in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron are all basically egg-shaped gobs of slime with eyes contained in a metallic, robotic "skin", featuring a glass upper half for sight and a bottom half fully electronic with a hovering mechanism and arms.

Rob The Robot. Dammit, that show has a planet for practically every theme.

The different kingdoms of Adventure Time could count as respective kingdoms of hats. The most often visited one is the Candy Kingdom, but there's also an Ice Kingdom, a Fire Kingdom, a Crime Kingdom, a Breakfast Kingdom, a Cats in Cardboard Boxes Kingdom...

In Wander over Yonder, most of the planets are this, like a planet of hillbillies, a planet of Viking sheep-men, a planet of sickeningly sweet happy-go-lucky aliens, and so on and so forth.

Every planet featured in The Brothers Flub that Retrograde makes deliveries to are hat planets. i.e. a planet of wrestlers, or a planet that's a giant pinball machine.

Tentacle Acres in the episode "Squidville": a town where everyone is a squid who looks like Squidward. They they all seem to enjoy biking and interpretive dancing.

Some species are indeed a species of hats. All squids look the same, sound similar and are (or strive to be) insufferable geniuses with strong artistic inclinations, while all starfishes look identical and act, well... not very bright.

In Biker Mice from Mars, the main antagonist is Lawrence Limburger, who is a member of a race of fish-like aliens called Plutarkians. All Plutarkians shown on the series are greedy and power-hungry jerks.

Subverted with the inhabitants of Planets Wait-Your-Turn, Tell-a-Lie, and Gut in 3-2-1 Penguins!, as their hats were put on by outside forces. I.E. a cutting-in-line bug caused the Wait-Your-Turners' hat to be impatience, the king pressing the button that caused Tell-a-Lie's moon to fall and him telling the Tell-a-Liars to constantly lie caused the Tell-a-Liars' hat to be dishonesty, and cereal caused the one-eyed pigs' hat to be gluttony.

Averted with the penguins themselves, one of the only things they have in common is that they're on one ship.

Other

The Point! is a fable which Harry Nilsson used to make an entire soundtrack. It was later adapted into an animated film and screenplay using the soundtrack. The entire fable revolved around a planet on which everything had a point on it, with the sole exception of the main character. He is shunned as a result. Ironically at the end, the entire world becomes devoid of points with the exception of the main character, who grows a point.

Humans tend to stereotype based on region, no matter how diverse a particular region may actually be. The "South" in the United States, for example, or any major metropolitan area.

An Earth-bound version of this trope is Older Than Feudalism. Aristotle is alleged to have said that the difference between the Greeks and "barbarians" is that all Greeks are different and all barbarians are the same. To the Greeks, then, all foreign tribes they came across were tribes of hats.

Alternative Title(s):Culture Of Hats, Clan Of Hats, Species Of Hats, Race Of Hats, Monocultural Planet, Monocultural Race, Planets Of Hats

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